3 Convicted in Brea Telemarketing Scam

In what prosecutors call one of the most callous and egregious telemarketing frauds, three former salesmen of a Brea boiler-room operation were convicted of preying on elderly citizens known to be victims of previous scams.

A U.S. District Court jury in Santa Ana convicted the former Nortay Consultants workers late Wednesday in the first trial stemming from October’s major crackdown on telemarketing fraud aimed at the elderly.

In an operation dubbed Senior Sentinel, federal authorities in the fall raided five companies in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties and eventually arrested 15 people.

The attack on telemarketing fraud is one of Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s priorities, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Brent Whittlesey. Federal and state agencies and Canadian authorities are developing an international strategy to combat boiler-room operations, he said.

Audiotapes and testimony showed that Nortay operators and salesmen posed as investigators and promised to collect funds that victims had lost in other telemarketing scams--some of which the salesmen themselves had perpetrated, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Ellyn M. Lindsay, who prosecuted the case. Salesmen bullied and sweet-talked 1,100 victims out of $491,000 over a two-year period that ended in April 1995.

Convicted Wednesday after a three-week federal trial were former partner and salesman Harold Larsen, 43, of Anaheim, and salesmen Jacob Giffin, 23, of Cypress and Kristen Leon Hall, 21, of Norwalk. Giffin faces 45 years in prison; the other two face prison terms of 10 years each at their sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 4.